Softball: Early Season

Mother Nature finally cooperated this week, allowing AA softball to really get underway in the Magic City. And After a weekend where West, Senior, and Skyview went 10-2 against the visiting Missoula schools (Hellgate, Sentinel, and Big Sky), I have to say that it's looking like an up-year on the diamond for the Billings' girls.

WEST (5-0)

The Lady Bears look very good, and it's because of one reason...actually, it's two reasons - Shelby Ballard and Kesley Jones. The two pitchers are each 2-0 for 5-0 West, and have been absolutely dominant so far.

In her first outing of the 2008 season, Ballard beat Sentinel Friday with a 2-hit shutout in which she struck out 13 Lady Spartans, and only allowed one ball out of the infield. And then, as if that wasn't enough, Ballard did herself one better with one-hit shutout Saturday over Big Sky, in which she struck out 10 Lady Eagles.

Ballard's '08 line: 2-0, 0.00 ERA, 12 IP, 3 hits, 23 K's

Not bad.

But not to be overshadowed is the other half of the Lady Bears' dynamic duo, Jones. Jones got the call for West's opener against Skyview on Tuesday, and carried a no-hitter into the 6th. Skyview eventually started to make some contact, but Jones still ended up giving up only 1 run on 4 hits, striking out 7 in the complete game win. Then, in the Lady Bears' first contest Saturday, Jones was even more spectacular, allowing just two hits and striking out 12 Lady Knight in the 9-0 win over Hellgate.

Jones' '08 line: 2-0, 0.64 ERA, 14 IP, 6 hits, 19 K's

And that doesn't even mention the Bears' other game, in which freshman Jessyka MacDonald pitched a gem in her debut, allowing only three hits while striking out 8 in West's 14-1 win over Sentinel in their 2nd game Friday afternoon. And the only run MacDonald allowed was off a missed return throw from catcher Allyson Peterson that allowed a Sentinel runner to come in from 3rd. Not too bad for your first Varsity start.

Offensively, the Bears' bats are on as much of a roll as the pitching staff. Through 5 games, West is averaging 10 runs per contest, including putting up 19 combined runs both Friday and Saturday in double-headers. West is led by Peterson on the offensive end, who has 3 HR's and 11 RBI's in 5 games. Kaitlyn Frank has 2 HR's of her own, both coming Friday against the young Lady Spartans, and Erin Compton has a hit in each game so far.

SENIOR (5-0)

Senior has been almost as impressive as the Lady Bears, although had three close games compared with West's blowouts over the weekend to put them a notch behind the Lady Bears in my rankings. However, the Lady Broncs are obviously still undefeated at 5-0, and go as star pitcher Lee Ann Anthony goes.

Anthony will be Senior's horse this season, and she proved that over the weekend with 3 starts resulting in 3 wins, and an additional 3 innings of relief in Senior's weekend double-headers. Anthony opened the Lady Broncs' season Thursday with an abbreviated 5-inning no-hitter over Bozeman, a game Senior won 27-0. Anthony had a perfect game into the fifth, in which she gave up 2 walks. She struck out 9 total Lady Hawks.

Anthony's workload really increased with Senior's 4 games over the weekend, and she did not dissapoint. On Friday, Anthony started the first game of Senior's double-header with Hellgate, pitching a complete game in which she allowed 1 run on 2 hits, and struck out 15 Lady Knights in Senior's 2-1 win. Then, in the 2nd game, Anthony came in to pitch 3 innings of relief, in which she struck out 7 to help Senior complete the sweep with a 4-1 win.

On Saturday, Anthony showed even she is not immune to getting a little tired, but still got the complete game win over the Lady Eagles of Big Sky, giving up 3 runs on 7 hits, including 2 HR's. But Anthony also struck out 11 batters and Senior pulled out a 4-3 win.

Anthony's '08 line: 3-0, 1.64 ERA, 22 IP, 11 hits, 42 K's

Anthony has also gotten considerable help on the offensive end, a welcome surprise to a Senior team that struggled to score runs last year. The Lady Broncs have scored 58 runs through their first 5 games, an average of 11.6 per, but that stat is actually misleading.

Senior scored 27 runs on a weak Bozeman squad, and 21 runs in their 2nd Saturday game against Sentinel, another very young team. So in Senior's other three games, they have only scored 10 runs, an average of 3.3 per contest. However, with Anthony on the mound, it's been good enough so far.

The trio of Kylie Kufeld, Courtney Gopp, and Hannah Stroebe has paced the Lady Broncs so far, and they'll count on their leadership to continue throughout the year.

SKYVIEW (2-3)

The Lady Falcons have not fared as well early in the 2008 season, losing their first three games before collecting two wins Saturday to move to 2-3 on the year. The most encouraging performer so far might be pitcher Teal Kaufman, who has looked strong against some strong early competition.

Kaufman came in in relief Tuesday against West, and shut down the Bears for 2+ innings before West finaly started to string together some hits. On Friday, Kaufman pitched a solid game against Big Sky, giving up 4 runs on 4 hits in 6 innings of work (Skyview lost 4-3). Then on Saturday, Kaufman came back to pitch 6 strong inning against Hellgate, in which she gave up only 3 runs and struck out 6 in Skyview's 4-3 win.

Offensively, the Falcons struggled in their first three game to really get anything going, averaging only 2.7 runs per contest. However, the bats came alive Saturday morning when the Lady Falcons' put up 24 runs on 19 hits against Sentinel...in only 2 innings! They then managed to score 4, including 2 in the bottom of the 7th, to get the win against Hellgate in Saturday's afternoon session.

Kate Brew and Nicole Miller will pace the Lady Falcon offense most of the year.

Make sure you catch Thursday's showdown between West and Senior @ 5:00 PM at the Lady Broncs field in Central Park!